Will U.S. even survive Obama's full term?

The rash of scandals facing Barack Obama and his administration in recent days has some people wondering if the president can survive his full term through January 2017.

Britain’s Telegraph newspaper is even running the headline: “You have to wonder: Will Obama see out his full term?”

But U.S. radio giant Rush Limbaugh says that’s the wrong question to ask.

“That’s not the question. The question is: Will America last through Obama’s full term?” Limbaugh said on his program Monday.

He continued:

Will the country survive the implementation of Obamacare? Will the country survive all this spying and all this data collecting? Will the country survive amnesty, will the country survive every plan this man’s got? That’s the question. The question is not will he serve out his second term ’cause that’s a no-brainer. Yet the UK Telegraph, ’cause they live in the real world and think, my gosh, the population of any country learning this about their president, they’d be livid. Not here. Not here. The racial component alone is not gonna permit it. It’s not gonna allow it. That coupled with the basic ignorance of the low-information voter.

There’s no real uptick on jobs. There aren’t any careers being created. People have lost jobs. Jobs are vanishing. Taxes are going up, skyrocketing high. The divide between rich and poor is only gonna get worse. Obamacare’s gonna be fully implemented. If it is, folks, 20 grand for a family to be insured? Then we’re talking immigration, amnesty, 11, 12 million people. Look at what’s on tap. If Obama could he’d wipe out the Second Amendment, if he could. You know who he is; I know who he is; you know where he’s headed. Everybody in this administration’s headed the same way. Look at the IRS scandal. Look at what the FDA is doing and the EPA and the autocratic-like, dictatorial regulations coming out of the various branches and cabinet positions of this administration, and the question is not is Obama gonna survive. The question, will America as founded.

There’s always gonna be an America. I don’t want to be misunderstood. I must always clarify. I think, like I said Friday, we are in the midst of a coup taking place. This government, this nation is being – what terminology would not affect you? Taken over? Is that too dicey? Does that make you too nervous? Transformed? Regardless, there is a peaceful coup d’etat going on. Most people, when you tell ’em there’s a coup going on, you think of rebels in tinhorn dictatorships riding around in 25-year-old Jeeps firing machine guns at the rebels, and at the citizens on the dusty road. That’s not what’s happening here. That’s not the kind of coup that’s taking place here.

The kind of coup that’s taking place here is nationalizing one-sixth of the economy, the health care system, under control of government. They’ve taken it over. They are attempting to totally bastardize the immigration system in this country, take that over and destroy it. If you look at the IRS scandal, this is what happens in tinhorn banana republics: enemies of the regime are targeted, punished, votes suppressed, not allowed to raise money, basically not allowed to be in opposition. We’re in the middle of a coup. And the question is not whether Obama survives it, folks, it’s whether the country does.

Meanwhile, now that Edward Snowden has stepped forward as the NSA whistleblower exposing the process of massive electronic snooping on Americans, Limbaugh admits he’s unsure if Snowden should be punished.

“I must tell you, I am conflicted about this in a number of ways,” he said. “It boils down or comes down again, in my mind, to who’s doing it. Because a person’s ideology matters.”

“Do I want somebody in charge of this kind of surveillance who doesn’t like this country as it’s founded? Do I want somebody collecting this kind of data on everybody who is in the middle of trying to transform this country into something the founders never intended it to be? On the other side of this is you would hope that our country and our intelligence agencies are able to determine planned attacks against this country and citizens against this country and uncover those in enough time to thwart them. In that sense, you want this kind of ability. …

“So in my mind, it does matter who’s in charge of it. It does matter. The political identity of the people who administer something like this matters incredibly. You look at the focus on how the leak happened and the motives of the leaker, if you focus on that, I think you missed the main question. The main question is, why is such a gigantic surveillance operation even necessary? What is really going on here? Who is the enemy? The tea party, we know, is an enemy of this administration.

“We know that conservative Republicans – and I could give you names – are enemies of this administration. We know that this administration has people in it who consider conservative Republicans to pose a greater threat to them than Islamic jihadists. So in deciding how you think or how you feel or what you think about this, I don’t know how you take that out. The government’s not just this thing sitting there that people run. There are certain kinds of people running it.”

Watch footage of some of the Guardian’s interviews with Snowden below:

Is Congress doing enough to hold the Obama administration accountable to the Constitution and the people?

It's not Congress' job

When Congress is accountable to the Constitution and the people, maybe that would be a good role for it

No one needs to hold Obama accountable to the Constitution and the people. He already is

Are you kidding? All Congress does is investigate so-called administration 'scandals'

No, Congress is not doing enough

No, members of Congress just use the Obama administration scandals to deflect blame from themselves

No, both parties are to blame for the long-term loss of our liberty

No, in light of recent scandals, Congress must repeal the Patriot Act, which is the most unpatriotic legislation in American history

No, for once even the press is way ahead of Congress

No, Congress is all talk. The Republicans are afraid to act

No, Congress is full of power-hungry cowards who should be run out of office for allowing Obama to get away with all his crimes

No, not until articles of impeachment are drawn up will Congress be doing enough